Office equipment such as printers, scanners, copiers and facsimile machines are in common use. Recently, new types of office equipment have been introduced, which combine functions of various machines into a single piece of equipment. These multi-purpose machines include, for example, the "OfficeJet" series of machines marketed by Hewlett-Packard Company, which includes functions of a printer and a facsimile machine, and as well those functions of a scanner and a copier. This invention will be described in the exemplary context of such multi-purpose machines, although the invention is not limited in application to such machines.
Manufacturers of office machines for today's globalized marketplace will typically manufacture one machine for many different countries. The product is then localized for a given country or language requirement. Localization refers to the process of having the product text messages in the local language into which the product is to be sold and ultimately used. Typically the product is built with any messages to be displayed on a product display stored in memory in the various languages. During the localization process, the machine is set up to use the particular language for displayed messages, and to provide the messages in the appropriate language for any text messages appearing on the machine housing including control panels. Thus, for example, the control panel may have a "Start" keycap which needs to be labeled in the appropriate language. A label is placed on the control panel in the appropriate language during the localization process. This of course is time consuming and adds to the cost of production, and would cause a need for a different control panel for each language. Another technique is to provide a snap-on cover for the control panel of the machine, the cover having the requisite language text already included on the cover.
Manufacturers of office machines, such as the multi-purpose equipment, can construct a particular type of machine to have a range of performance and operational features or options, i.e. a universal machine, which can be configured as different product models. Configuration refers to the adaptation of the product to add or remove performance and/or features from the universal machine to meet customer needs. In the past, the factory typically made certain quantities of the product having the various options; i.e. the configuration was done at the factory. This has the disadvantage of added inventory for the various product configurations, and added cost in product manufacture, since different product configurations are built, as compared to building only a single universal machine.